WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – The City of Wichita is facing a budget shortfall in future years, but a local non-profit is working on a solution. Wichita Forward is a 501(c)(4) non-profit comprised of local businesses and community leaders with the goal of helping Wichita flourish. They’re proposing a 1% sales tax, a plan group leaders say would generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the city.
According to Wichita Forward’s website, the sales tax would run for seven years, and during that time it would accomplish several key goals:
- Building a safe and resilient community, which includes investments into public safety and reducing homelessness. ($375-million)
- Revitalization of Century II and convention space complex. ($250-million)
- Property tax relief. ($150-million)
- Education and the arts, including a new downtown performing arts facility. ($75-million)
Wichita Forward’s plan also includes a citizen oversight committee, which would decide the best way to spend the money generated by the sales tax and make a recommendation to the Wichita City Council.
“We went out and got some polling to validate that those things were still an interest to citizens in solving,” said Fidelity Bank CEO and Wichita Forward co-founder Aaron Bastian. “And then just kinda slowly started to expand the coalition of people that are working on it from there. Today, we’ve got a pretty broad group of folks that really think this makes an awful lot of sense and want to get the chance to see it put to a vote and determine if this is something we want to take on as a city.”…